I am not going to be able to watch the second half, but this start has been brutally slow. I am watching in the US on Fox and the commentators have struggled to find things to talk about. At different points they have talked about the grounds crew, tea cups, and the Copa America instead of this game. If England has any hopes of making a run in this tournament, they are going to need to make some changes, up the tempo, and find some urgency.

Really lackadaisical start to this game so far. At least when England played Denmark they came out strong before they got lazy. This game they just started that way.

Overall, this game was kind of disappointing with relatively few good chances at goal from open play (especially compared to the other Group D match). The equalizer came from a penalty that will be sure to spark discussion going forward. At the end of the day, France looked their best when they were playing quickly and vertically. They struggled to generate chances when they couldn’t use their pace against the Polish defense. Lessons to take with them as they advance.

I can’t stand when penalty takers do those inconsistent runs up to the ball just to try to bait the keeper. Aren’t there rules about that kind of thing? Feel for the French keeper on this one.

Yeah, France has looked better in the second half. Attacking with pace that the Polish defense has struggled with.

At the half:

I tuned in about 10 minutes through the half once I grabbed some lunch. I have been watching France play through this tournament and they haven’t seemed like they particularly found their groove yet. At least, they seem a pale imitation of the French team that showed up in the World Cup. I had thought it was maybe due to Mbappe being sidelined so far. However, with him on the pitch this game, they have largely struggled to break through the Polish defense (until the last ~5 minutes or so).

There just hasn’t been too much movement off the ball for France, creating space for their play makers to work through the Polish defense. France has looked better on the fast break than when they try to build it up because they have struggled to get through the back line of Poland after they get their lines set up. There were a couple minutes there at the end of the half where France started playing some quick give and go’s and were able to spring some players behind the back line to make the Polish goalkeeper come up with some good reflex saves.

As for Poland, I think they should be fairly happy with their performance so far. They have mostly managed to contain some of the French play makers while having a couple good looks at goal on the break. Something to watch out for, and they almost got caught out, is that they don’t over commit forward and have things turn into a footrace toward their own goal after a turnover.

The French team of the last five minutes of the half looked way better than the rest of what I watched, so I think they should look to emulate those quick passes and through balls to try to break through Poland as their big, lofted crosses haven’t had shown too much promise yet.

I haven’t watched it, but it looks like Girls Band Cry. The 13th episode and finale is airing in a couple days. Not sure what episode this is from.

Filterable post flairs and instance-agnostic links are my two biggest wish list items that I think would go a long way to making that specific community much nicer (speaking as a mod).

Typesetting is one of those things that we tend not to notice at all when it is good, but becomes pretty obvious when it is bad.

They don’t usually announce a new season until the previous one has finished airing. I find it almost impossible that Frieren doesn’t get a season 2 given its immense popularity both within Japan and abroad. Final episode airs on Friday and I give >50% chance that a season 2 announcement is also made on Friday.

Obligatory shout out that you might get more answers in !anime@ani.social, either as a post or a comment in the weekly general thread as compared to a meme community like this one.

It sounds like you want to avoid melodrama or manufactured tension. Here are a couple recent shows that popped into my head that generally fit across a couple genres:

• Horimiya (2021) - A really well done romcom set in high school. There is a second season that aired recently, but the first season tells a pretty complete story, the second season is mainly side stories.
• Campfire Cooking (2023) - If romance isn’t your thing, you could check out this series that is a “slow-life isekai” that focuses on good food and fun companions.
• Bocchi the Rock! (2022) - Not into either romance or cooking? Check this series out for anime girls doing music instead. This series came out of nowhere to become a lot of people’s favorite of the season/year.
• Frieren (2023-currently airing) - Think Lord of the Rings, but from an elf’s perspective in that Frieren, an elf, has a functionally infinite lifespan. This fantasy series quickly became the highest rated series on MAL despite still airing its first season. It has its emotional moments, but the series so far has been an excellent adaptation of an excellent manga.

Haha, I wish it was as “ordinary” as Nichijou. Sadly it is ordinary in the sense that it is neither great nor terrible and it is quite forgettable. I dare say the kids today would call it mid.

Well, I like the manga a lot more, and had been reading that long before the anime was even announced. However, once I started the anime and was disappointed, I just couldn’t bring myself to stop until I had finished the season. It was the sunk cost fallacy in action.

In general, this genre of story, the “slow-life isekai”, generally doesn’t translate to anime well in my opinion. Probably the only one that I liked the anime adaptation was Slime 300 (which had a second season announced).

Not that I remember. This is from “Farming Life in Another World” which is an exceedingly ordinary show. I have watched the show and read the manga, but I don’t remember this as a plot point (and I am pretty sure this would have stuck in my brain). If I remember correctly, this scene is the group of elves introducing themselves to the MC as they are moving into his village.

Pretty funny joke subs though. Something as crazy as this might have made the show more interesting tbh.

The point he was making about fossilized tropes that are not really relevant to us in the modern day, but have stuck around is something that you see everywhere in media once you start looking for it. An example you see a lot in both Western media as well as anime/manga is that cities are teeming with ne’er-do-wells that will accost/cat-call women and gangs are lurking in every alley. Cities were much more dangerous decades ago when a lot of the media establishing these tropes were made (Taxi Driver, etc.).

However, modern day cities are much nicer and safer (especially so in Japan). I have gotten lost and wandered alleys in the city where I work (major east coast US city) and have never had any issues over the past 15 years. I am not saying there aren’t issues as my wife has been cat-called a couple times over that time period, but it is nothing like you see in anime/manga. Basically every chapter of Rent a Girlfriend has multiple men walking the street call out how beautiful Chizuru is for example.

I don’t usually post character visuals (this is a character named Kojiro, I think, I am not familiar with the source). However, I really liked this one as it isn’t just a character standing up straight against a white background like most. The deer made me think of Nichijou as well, so that is a huge plus.

I haven’t watched this show, but the OP is one of my favorites of the season.

It’s never shown or stated in the source, but that is the most logical answer. She was good at hiding her mana even before being trained by Frieren for most of her life up to this point.

His gambits are perfect. I’ll show you how effective his techniques are:

Ummm, maybe we should go back to the Acme catalog for ideas.

If only there was an expert we could consult for stratagems to catch quick birds…